With a growing number of hand-held electronic devices available to consumers, there is an increasing need for secondary accessories that modify and enhance these devices. Many such accessories exploit existing capabilities of the hand-held devices by enhancing and simplifying a consumer's ability to use the device. As an example, an accessory may modify a hand-held device so that an attachment provides additional functionalities to the device. As another example, an attachment may enhance a user's ability to enjoy application software available for the smart devices, such as game applications, by providing additional controls.
One of the more recently developed electronic devices are e-readers, tablets, or smart devices having relatively large screens. These smart devices are often used for reading books, internet browsing, watching stored movies, playing games, and other work or recreational activities. Many of these devices, as well as some popular cell phones, and in particular smart phones, have evolved to having a full touch screen and no traditional attachments, such as an alpha-numeric keyboard, joystick, or a game controller. Touch screens also present additional challenges to game users in that the lack of a traditional keyboard, joystick, or a controller generally decreases a user's ability to react with sufficient comfort, ease, and speed to the demands of a game application. For example, by navigating a game application by means of a touch screen, a user typically utilizes only an index finger of one hand as opposed to traditional game controllers which provide a variety of controls and buttons so that a user may engage one or more fingers of both hands. As another example, controlling a smart device software application, such as a game application, by means of a touch screen may present a problem in that a user may block certain parts of the touch screen while engaging fingers on the touch screen. Thus, a user may be deprived of a higher level of enjoyment of the smart device game and other applications. Further, most smart hand-held devices are not equipped for long-term use in that a user must continuously hold or otherwise prop-up the device. For example, the smart devices themselves are generally planar and need to be propped or angled by hand to view the screen. This can be cumbersome and taxing for extended periods of time and challenging when the user engages in use of a game or other application. Even though many smart devices have the capability to function like a personal computer or another gaming device, most are not designed for such extensive usage. As a result, a number of secondary accessories have been developed to modify the smart devices for enhanced and simplified use such as an attachable keyboard. However, there is a lack of an accessory providing additional controls which a user could utilize for a smart device software applications such as game applications.
Game accessories such as game controllers are known in the art For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,802 discloses a game controller with pressure-sensitive analog sensors for video game machines. U.S. Pat. No. 6,659,870 discloses a game controller with an additional steering lever. U.S. Pat. No. 7,794,326 further discloses a game controller with a variety of controls and pivotal grips ensuring ergonomics of the game controller. The problem is that none of the game controllers are compatible and can be used with the smart hand-held devices such as iPhone®, iPad®, or iPad Mini.
Therefore, there remains a need for a game controller accessory for electronic smart devices that provides a user with enhanced ability to utilize and enjoy the smart device application software by offering additional control options besides the touch screen.